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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Day 9: Update on Operation Protective Edge and Federation Response

Update from JFNA President and CEO Jerry Silverman in Israel

Day 9:
Update on Operation Protective Edge and Federation Response July 16, 2014

Dear Colleagues,

As I send this email, I am waiting to board a plane to the
U.S. at Ben Gurion Airport. Our solidarity mission has ended and we’re about
to return to our lives back home. While our phones will still ring from the
IDF’s Red Alert rocket hit app, we won’t have to scramble for shelter.

Millions of Israelis will, though. They are still living
it.

They’re still taking cover in stairwells and safe rooms.
Parents are still comforting crying children during sleepless nights in
shelters. The sirens are still sounding.

Indeed, the crisis is not over. For Israelis. Or for
us.

So you will continue to receive messages from “my desk,” but I
will just be a messenger to convey to you the real voices of the people of
Israel, the people living the situation on the ground. We are collecting
their stories so you can hear directly from them.

We have also invited our partner agencies, who really have
been your proxies in bringing aid to the people of Israel, to share their
reflections from the field. Today, Alan Gil, the CEO of JDC, imparts his
thoughts. In the next few days, we will share with you thoughts from our many
partners.

May our strength as Am
Yisrael continue to guide our work.

Jerry

Going to work has become a traumatic experience for Yuli Gus,
an expecting mother with a three-year-old son living in Tel Aviv. Every time
a siren blares, she is overcome with panic, consumed by thoughts of her son
running for shelter while rockets fly overhead. Did he make it to the safe room in time? Is he
okay? Should I call again to make sure? She can’t get through a
single work day without worrying about his safety.

Beth Steinberg and Ira Skop have had to create several plans
to help Akiva, their son with Down Syndrome, deal with the ongoing
barrage of rockets and subsequent sirens. Though they live just seconds
from their safe room, they fear his developmental problems will not allow him
to make it in time. If Akiva is too traumatized by the noise
to move quickly enough, Beth and Ira have decided to throw their bodies
over him and shelter him from rocket fire.

From Alan Gil, Chief Executive Officer

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

It's hard for any of us to imagine what it is like to live
under constant threat of missile attack, fear permeating your being,
wondering what will happen next.

Now imagine if you were a frail or bedridden 80-year-old, a
person with a physical disability or a petrified child tackling challenges
every day, including the loss of a parent or poverty. Now add the sirens. Add
the missiles. Think of the loneliness. And keep in mind that 60-second window
to find safety and solace.

Now you understand the situation for tens of thousands of
Israelis in the south—and throughout the country—who face this crisis, the
unimaginable, with growing needs and circumstances that require a response
imbued with humanity and carried out with expert care.

Thanks to the passionate support and leadership of JFNA and
the Jewish Federation system, there is a broad and deep JDC network in Israel
of hundreds of emergency teams, social workers, teen volunteers and trained
professionals who are reaching 10,000 elderly and people with disabilities to
ensure their basic needs, including human contact; bringing smiles to the
faces of nearly 20,000 children through bomb shelter recreational activities;
offering a day of critically needed respite to busloads of vulnerable
Israelis from heavily bombarded areas; creating a WhatsApp peer-to-peer
message group among worried mothers that is ensuring they have neighbors to
turn to when sirens blare; and working on a number of innovative and widely
deployed online platforms that reach these Israelis in their homes and on
their phones at their greatest time of need.

Today in Israel, as whenever there is a crisis in the Jewish
world, we are putting into action that we are all responsible for one
another. In the last week, tens of thousands of Israeli seniors, children and
youth, and people with disabilities turned to the JDC facilities and staff
who support them during the best of times, and were given the intimate
assurance that someone was there for them at the worst of times. That someone
was there because of the global Jewish community—because of you.

THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR ISRAEL

--As The Jewish Agency
continues its emergency efforts, some 400 new immigrants from France are
arriving in Israel today. Undeterred by the security situation, most of the
new arrivals are families, including 195 minors and 18 babies, brought on two
special flights organized by The Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliyah and
Immigrant Absorption.

--2014 has seen a dramatic
increase in aliyah from France, and more than 5,000 French Jews are expected
to immigrate to Israel by the end of the year. 3,289 French Jews immigrated
to Israel in 2013, compared to 1,917 in 2012—a 60% increase. Chairman of the
Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky said, "Despite
the rocket onslaught against the people of Israel, not one immigrant from
France has canceled his or her arrival."

THE
ISRAEL TRAUMA COALITION

--Roni Lior, the Israel
Trauma Coalition’s project coordinator for Sderot and the Gaza region,
pointed out that Gaza border communities have suffered 14 years of constant
exposure to Kassams and other deadly rockets.

--“In these communities,
every child under the age of 14 has spent all of his life like this,” Lior
said. “The effects vary, from avoidance of specific activities—like refusing
to walk to school along a route where a rocket once fell—to intrusive
thoughts where you feel like you’re re-experiencing the traumatic event, and
hypervigilance, where everything makes you jump.”

--ITC’s Natal has a mobile
unit operating in Ofakim, Sderot and Netivot, providing individual and group
therapy, while home psychological treatment for elderly Holocaust survivors
is provided by ITC’s Amcha.
The Selah
Crisis Management Center is in constant contact with its immigrant
clientele, providing house visits and telephone consultations where needed.

--Many parents from both
Gaza border areas and the Tel Aviv-Gush Dan region have been calling hotlines
to seek help with children crying, vomiting, shaking uncontrollably, wetting
the bed or suffering stomach pains. In response, ITC developed an
informational pamphlet for parents in English and Hebrew. The RADAR Center/Negev
Project Vision at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev also published
“psychological first aid” guides for parents.

--Over 600 people have been
treated for anxiety so far, in contrast to 800 for the entire year of 2013.
There has been an alarming increase in professional "burn-out". The
dedicated service providers who work around the clock now desperately require
respite programs where they can receive self-help and regenerative care.

--Where the model
Resilience Centers—the partnership of ITC, Government and local councils—have
invested resources and expertise, the five local council authorities of
Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Sdot Negev, Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol are performing
better than areas that had not benefited from professional support and
assistance.

WORLD ORT

--World ORT sent a
solidarity mission to Israel’s south. Mission members had to huddle in a
reinforced bus shelter when a red alert caught them on the open road as they
neared Sha’ar HaNegev High School. Once at the school, they were able to
ignore a second red alert thanks to the reinforced concrete buildings of the
new campus, which World ORT helped to build.

--World ORT Kadima Mada CEO
Avi Ganon, who grew up in Beer Sheva, said, “The mayor said we were the first
overseas delegation to visit his city and he welcomed our support. It means a
lot to local people when they see people have come from Mexico, the USA, the
UK to support them—it says something.”

--The mission today was due
to meet the more than 200 people bussed up to the Kiryat Yam region by World
ORT for respite from the bombardment of their southern communities.

--“Beer Sheva is home to
World ORT’s second largest investment in Israel’s education system,” said
World ORT Treasurer Shelley Fagel.

MASORTI (CONSERVATIVE) MOVEMENT

--Due to the security
situation, Ramah-NOAM summer camp, scheduled to begin July 13 in the Ben
Shemen Forest, will not be able to take place at this location as per the
Central Command. The movement is now planning on hosting the camp at a new
location, Ramat HaGolan, in the north.

--Respite activities for
children and adults will be operated by the NOAM Garin, coordinators and
senior staff in bomb shelters and at some of the Masorti communities in more
secure locations. This project will include transportation, equipment and
recreational activities that will be located at NOAM branches throughout the
country used in times of emergency.

--The Counseling Program
will provide emotional and spiritual counseling for people suffering from
stress and anxiety due to daily rocket fire, terror attacks or other
emergencies.

REFORM MOVEMENT (Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism)

--Emergency activity
packages are being provided for families in need and at Home Day Camps, filled
with toys, activity modules and other supplies.

THE SITUATION

--After the Israeli
government accepted the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement Tuesday, Hamas
rejected the reported text, saying, "Our battle with the enemy
continues and will increase in ferocity and intensity." Hamas
called it an initiative of "bowing
and submission," adding, "It was not worth the ink it was
written with. "

-- During a six-hour Israeli ceasefire, Hamas fired over 80 rockets into
the country from Gaza. Hamas
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, "The retaliations of the resistance
will continue until we achieve all the demands of our people, and any
unilateral Israeli ceasefire would be worthless."

--The IDF continues to warn
Gazans in advance of strikes, yet civilian residents of Shija’iya and
Zeitoun, and many in Beit Lahiya, are not evacuating their homes. The Wafa
Rehabilition Center in Shija’iyah is also reported to be refusing to
evacuate.

--Prime Minister Netanyahu
addressed his security council Tuesday night, recapping Israel’s acceptance
of the ceasefire, Hamas’ refusal and subsequent actions: "This morning,
I convened the Security Cabinet. We decided that Israel would respond
positively to Egypt's
proposal for a ceasefire. Hamas chose to continue the campaign and it
will pay for this decision. Whoever tries to attack the citizens of Israel,
Israel will strike at him. When
there is no ceasefire, our answer is fire. It would have been preferable
to resolve this by diplomacy and we tried to do so when we acceded to the
Egyptian ceasefire proposal. But Hamas left us no choice but to broaden and
intensify the campaign against it. This is what we will do until we achieve
our goal – the restoration of quiet for Israel's citizens while inflicting a
significant blow on the terrorist organizations. These are moments in which
decisions must be made with equanimity and patience, not in haste. I am
determined to do the right thing and I know that you rely on me and on us to
ignore the background noise and concentrate on the main task – guarding your
security and your lives."

--Prime Minister Netanyahu
addressed German Foreign Minister Steinmeier Tuesday, saying, "I know that
you know that no country would sit idly by while its civilian population is
subjected to terrorist rocket fire. Israel is no exception… I want to thank
the many world leaders, including yourself, who unequivocally condemn Hamas
for the rocket fire on Israeli cities and for the clear-cut support for
Israel's right to self-defense."

--Outgoing president Shimon Peres also
supports Israel’s right to protect its citizens: “There is a moral problem,
but I don’t have a moral answer to it. If they are shooting at us, and don’t
let our mothers and their children…have a full night’s sleep, what can we
do?”